June 10, 2013

to start a new bookshop, or...a book club?

A new indie bookshop with a twist. Adam Pollard tells the Guardian how he and his wife have achieved success with the Willoughby Book Club:

The obvious question is why a new, small-scale provider would voluntarily enter such a challenging market?

From a personal perspective, our reasoning was sound: we wanted to share our love of great books and reading for pleasure with as many like-minded people as possible.

Having done our homework, one thing became clear. In order for us to thrive, we would have to offer an engaging point of differentiation – something that none of our larger competitors already provided.

And so the Willoughby book club was born. We launched our website in the summer of 2012 – and we haven't looked back.

The premise of our service is simple. We offer a range of book subscription gift packages, available in three-, six- and 12-month options. Our customers choose a package, tell us a little about the person they're buying it for, and we use this information to send the recipient a hand-picked, gift-wrapped book once a month.

Each volume is selected to meet the reader's literary tastes. The first book arrives with a personal message from the buyer.